The Plains

Vacation time again.  The Kansas Plains await.  Not sure exactly where I'm going, but I want to see Hays, Great Bend, McPherson, Oakley, Colby, and Goodland.  Museums and historic and natural sites abound in the region and I'm looking forward to buying books at their shops.  From Emporia, we hope to visit Lawrence, Junction City, Abilene, Topeka, and Atchison.  Probably will need to cut some destinations from the schedule, but not too many.  I must see the Kansas Historical Museum in Topeka to check out their book selections.  If not, I'll make up for it at the other bookstores.  Most of the historic sites and museums in Kansas have some thoughtful people selecting and buying the books to sell.  Ft. Hays, Ft. Riley, Ft. Zarah, and Ft. Riley are the military sites I want to see.  College towns are always attractive to me and Lawrence is no exception.  Manhattan is a neat little town where Kansas State University sets and I've been through there a few times.  Lawrence, however, is more reminiscent of Fayetteville and I enjoyed my last visit.  My late father-in-law called KU campus Snob Hill (he was a K-State grad), but he liked the town. 

I had so much fun in central Tennessee last spring, but missed out on spending much time in Oxford. We ate lunch at Ajax and had a book-buying binge at Square Books and Square Books Jr. before heading over to West Helena to visit family, but we wanted to spend a few days visiting Mississippi sites.  We may spend our 2 week vacation on the Plains next year because Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and Montana are high on my list of visits.  I need to buy some books on the mining industry because my railroad study now requires understanding the history of mining, particularly in the West.  There's a salt mine museum in Salina I would love to visit; never enough time or money for everything I want to do.  My wife needs to find outlets to sell her purse designs in the West because her purses with scenes from the Plains have sold.  It seems to me we need to find some fairs and festivals where she can set up and sell her portable works of art. 

The Prairie Grove Clothesline Fair attracts buyers of Western art locally and she needs to sell her wares there for sure.  The ideal for future vacations is to bundle book-buying sprees, historic site and museum visits with sales opportunies for her functional artwork.  We're exploring some 30 day vacations in the future, but we're still learning to plan the perfect North American vacation.  I need to follow the SFT all the way to Sacramento, down the American River by steamship to San Francisco some day.  My study of the SFT has been a rewarding experience and I'm hopeful of a spectacular conclusion that I'll treasure forever. Planning and executing a vaction plan requires time and effort.  This vacation has required several weeks so far.  Facebook has been an invaluable tool in checking out potential sites to visit as well as the state atlases.  I'm ready to buy an rv and travel the roads of this continent.  Canada is definitely on the list with their interesting 19th century history on their western plains and mountainous regions.  Can't wait!

Fear/Pity

Saw a black cat outside his door. Did he own the cat? Not sure. Every day since his body was found in the woods near his apartment, the cat crouches outside the door where the fella' living there would give it water, milk, or table scraps. The property owner wasted no time in hammering the "For Rent" sign on the front lawn and removing the bowls that had been set out for the cat. Before his obituary posted, the sign was in the yard.




Not from here, he just lived here. Most folks come from somewhere far away in this boomtown. The region has benefited from the largess of some huge global corporations. Many were brought here despite their wishes in an economy which requires keeping the job you have. Very few jobs offering actual retirement plans these days are to be found. Not sure what brought this fella' to town, possibly the university. Always a lot of frustrations and broken hearts in a town where a major university is located. Grad. programs attract the folks with the most to lose in failure to receive the degree. A whole life's planning could be flushed down the toilet.



The property owner must have been relieved that the troubled renter ended it all in the woods and not in the apartment, like some. No need to clean up or disclose such events, limiting the pool of potential renters who get "creeped out" by ghosts and such. Not sure if I'm not sympathetic to the "creeped out" sensation. No one wants to be in such a state as to want to do mortal harm to oneself and the possible presence of a wandering spirit could promote unrest in the future inhabitants of the apartment. Folks like Albert Camus have written about the ethical ramifications of such an action. I agree with his thoughtful assessment in Myth of Sisyphus, The Rebel, or The Plague. Death needs no help in doing its dirty work. Humans who aid and abet death are guilty of complicity in an evil act. Sound thoughts from one of the world's treasures, his life cut short in an automobile accident. He survived the Nazis and their Vichy co-conspirators while in North Africa during World War II only to die on the peaceful roadways in France years later. Had the poor hopeless fella ever read Camus or the passages in the Bible where Haman hung himself or Judas? These were desperate men reacting to their existential duties in the grand scheme: Mutual arising (Zen and the art of Occidental/Oriental fusion).



Nevertheless, kitty misses him. It's certain his family back home miss him too. Why? The storm and stress of life claims another relatively young victim. Compassion and love are required for folks who feel the need to die in this manner. Life is worth living and worthy of defense from the inevitable. Fear, pity, and longing were too much to bear for yet another soul. Adieu.